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Mental health billboards appear in Minister’s electorate
Mental health billboards appear in Minister’s electorate overnight
Sunday 30 July 2017
MEDIA RELEASE:
ActionStation
Billboards highlighting the fact that most New Zealanders want an inquiry into the public mental health system have sprung up overnight in the Health Minister’s Northcote electorate.
Community campaign
group ActionStation have claimed credit for the covert
action after Health Minister Jonathan Coleman dismissed the
recommendations from The People’s Mental Health Review
which the group released earlier this year.
“After
we released the report of the People’s Mental Health
Review, Minister Coleman refused to take action” said
ActionStation co-director and report author, Marianne
Elliott.
“Instead he dismissed the 500 people who submitted stories of their experience of the mental health system and the 10,000 people who supported the report's’ recommendations as ‘anti-government protesters’.”
“Polling proves the opposite is true - the vast
majority of New Zealanders want an inquiry into the public
mental health system and these billboards are designed to
remind the Minister of that”
The signs satirise
National Party’s billboards and feature an image of
Minister Coleman with the slogan ‘77% of Kiwis want a
mental health inquiry (But not me) - Dr Jonathan Coleman,
Minister of Health’.
Independent polling
conducted by Colmar Brunton for ONE News released in June
showed 77% of New Zealanders think there is a need for an
independent inquiry into mental health and support services
in New Zealand.
Earlier polling conducted by UMR in
May showed only 1 in 10 New Zealanders thought the
Government was doing enough for mental health system.
“It’s clear that our mental health system is
currently under strain and desperately needs more funding.
The Government’s current hands-off approach isn’t
working. It’s time the Minister is reminded of his
responsibility to do more to save lives,” concludes
Elliott.
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